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Mars
Mars is the fourth planet in orbit from the star Sol and is a major world in the Human Alliance. The world has a population of 1.4 billion and is the fourth-most populous planet in the Alliance. Due to its importance in the Alliance's early history, it has come to be called the "Second World" of the Alliance. Celestial Geography Mars is covered mostly by landmass, with nearly all of its southern hemisphere composed of land, and much of its northern hemisphere as well. North of the single landmass - which contrary to convention has no name other than "mainland" - is the Northern Ocean, which surrounds the small polar ice cap. The major geographical dividing line on Mars derives from the high-altitude Tharsis Plateau, which is home to three of the tallest peaks in the solar system. Northwest of Tharsis proper is Olympus Mons, a massive shield volcano with an area of 120,000 miles and the highest point in the Sol system, as well as the mighty Alba Patera highlands. All of these are on a large, sparsely inhabited portion of Mars jutting into the Northern Ocean known as the Tharsis Subcontinent. The majority of the planet's population lives in the coastal equatorial lowlands around one of the three major seas of Mars - the Arcadian Sea between Elysium and the Tharsis Subcontinent; the Acidalian Sea and its island-heavy Chryse Bay between Tharsis and the lands of Aureum and New Arabia; and the Utopian Sea, particularly the Gulf of Isidis, to the west of Elysium. The most concentrated population centers are in the "Belt" region stretching from the northern shores of the Gulf of Isidis to the eastern reaches of the Amazonian Sea at the south end of the Arcadian Sea, and the islands and inlets around Chryse Bay. There are also two large inland seas in the southern hemisphere home to large populations - the Argyre Sea and the Sea of Hellas. Government Planetary The Planetary Government of Mars governs the entire of the planet and hearkens back to Mars' early colonial days, when the various colonies had to band together to represent the planet's interests. Mars has a "strong global" type government where the central planetary authority exercises considerably more power and influence than constituent provinces, which are fairly weak, particularly in comparison to the authority granted Mars' cities, some of which are combined city-provinces. The Planetary Government is parliamentary, with the Martian Assembly, a unicameral body, holding nearly all authority with its Premier as the chief of government of the planet. There is also a weak Governor-General of Mars who serves as the head of state, with the Assembly nominating three candidates to then be voted upon with a four-fifths majority required. The Governor-General is a ceremonial post typically given to near-retirement politicians, judges or military figures with little formal power other than calling an election on the advice of the Premier or if the Premier loses a confidence vote. The Governor-General may serve no more than a single six-year term. The Martian Assembly has eight-hundred members with a complicated electoral system. Half of the Assembly is elected via proportional representation, with a Ranked Choice vote system selecting the parties in three rounds. In the first round, the top-twelve ranked parties advance to the next round, with any other vote-earning parties eliminated with no seats regardless of performance. In the second round, counted a week later, the bottom four parties are eliminated with each earning ten seats. In the third round, counted a week later, the bottom three parties are each granted twenty seats, with the top five parties being proportionately allocated seats out of the remaining three hundred seats based on vote share. Half of the members of the party lists used to assign Members of the Assembly must be men, and half must be women. The other four hundred seats are divided into three hundred and fifty constituent districts that are winner-take-all, with the winning party in each district winning after a Ranked Choice Vote. Each district covers an equal number of residents, and so they do not necessarily correspond to provincial borders, though no district may contain pieces of more than two provinces and they should be designed to be couched within provincial borders when possible. Ten seats are given to the top-placing party from the proportional representation seat, known as the "popular bonus," and an additional ten seats are given to the party that wins the most WTA districts and five to the party that wins the second most, known as "geographic bonus seats." The final twenty-five seats are given to "official registered minorities," with the ten largest ethnic minority groups (by Martian terminology, groups with less than 10% of the planet's population) each receiving a seat, the ten largest minority alien species each receiving a seat, and the five largest religious minorities each receiving a seat. Mars is the only human planet that reserves more than two seats in its legislature for non-human groups. The Premier forms a Cabinet if he has the confidence of a majority of the Assembly. Because of the wild and unwieldy coalition politics common to Mars due to ethnic rivalries and strong regionalism (with many political parties being of ethnic or regional nature), the Cabinet can only lose a confidence vote if it loses it by three-fifths vote and Martian Assembly terms can be no shorter than two Martian (Darian 669 day calendar) years, though they rarely last much longer and have a fixed term of three-and-a-half Darian calendar years. Category:Humans Category:League of Planets Adventure Category:Planets